1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing service method, system therefor, and printer, for providing a discount service by printing advertisements on printed matter, and more particularly to a printing service method, system therefor, and printer that expand a fee discount service for individuals, to create a fee discount service for companies and thereby improve user convenience.
2. Description of the Related Art
As uses of printed matter have become more diversified, so too has it become common for the needs of printed matter to extend beyond the subject matter itself. There is also a need for printed matter to be provided inexpensively. For this reason, a service method for printing advertisements on printed matter and providing a discount service for users is being used in the field of photocopiers.
This system adds an advertising print function to a photocopier, prints advertisements in the margins of printed matter during copying, and discounts the copying fees accordingly. This discount fee is made possible by charging the sum discounted to the advertisers.
The fee discount method by printing advertisements with the photocopier itself is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 62-118362, and Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 9-90832, for example. The changing of advertisement information in the photocopiers through a network is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 8-256256 and Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 11-192760, for example. Furthermore, the inclusion of an advertising print function in a facsimile machine in order to discount the facsimile transmission fee is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 1-195753.
All instances of the prior art hypothesize a copying service for individuals. In other words, these are service systems wherein the print-fee is discounted whenever the advertisements are printed, or the number of pages with printed advertisements are counted and discounted together at the payment stage.
Meanwhile, in the office environment for small and medium enterprises to large companies, copiers output a very large number of copies and printers output a very large number of pages, but there is no service for discounting the fees for using those devices.
For this reason, while there are merits to a discount service in agreements for renting a number of machines, a problem is that this cannot be used for other services (office supplies, maintenance services, etc.) in unit rentals (for example, only the number of pages used). Another problem is that it is not possible to receive such a discount service for products that are purchased, such as printers.